198 Greens Clough. 



joyment, and in Whit-week are the well-chosen resort of 

 thousands of visitors. 



There are two places, however, at a little distance, 

 that deserve each a separate exploration. These are 

 PORTSMOUTH and HARDCASTLE CRAGS. 



Portsmouth, so named by a sailor who was born here, 

 and came back in his old age, is five or six miles up the 

 Burnley Valley. There are very few houses; the at- 

 traction consists in the glorious hillside walks, and in 

 " Green's Clough." Like the other cloughs in the mill- 

 stone-grit mountains, it is wild, rugged, and precipitous, 

 with down the centre, a torrent of clear water, the 

 vapour from which encourages luxuriance of vegetation, 

 and especially the growth of mosses, of which many 

 curious and interesting species are here to be found. 

 At the top of the clough is one of the most singular and 

 beautiful spectacles nature presents. A small and aban- 

 doned tunnel in the hillside, not large enough to stand 

 upright in, is covered over the whole of the interior sur- 

 face with the " shining cavern moss," the same as that 

 mentioned as growing by the waterfall at Alderley. 

 When viewed at the proper angle, the entire side of 

 the cave gleams with green and golden light, that comes 

 and goes with every inclination of the head, just as the 

 colours of a lady's shot-silk dress vary to and fro with 

 the movement of the limbs. This exquisite little plant 

 bears removal to a fernery, and, if placed in a moist and 

 shady recess, formed of pieces of rock, will grow as well 



